Memories on Christmas Day
by VG LittleBear
Summary: One shot - Tag to "Newborn King" s09, ep.11 - Xmas Day w/ Gibbs, Tony, Leyla & Amira. - bittersweet/comfort - Gibbs remembers Jenny and Kelly, Gibbs/Tony father/son relationship - Spoiler warning: Any episode till 9x11 - Don't want to know Gibbs favorite cookie flavor yet? Pls wait for s11 Xmas (no other secrets revealed here). Anything feels off, please PM to discuss/fix, thanks!


Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

Further referenced are biblical characters, owned by God himself, or so it's written.

A/N: NCIS 2011 - Tag to Newborn King, season 09, ep. 11 - Gibbs, Tony, Leyla, Amira

**Memories on Christmas Day**

(by VG LittleBear/vglb)

Gibbs told Tony that he wouldn't find what he was looking for in his basement. The Christmas lights flimmered, then came back on, and Tony smiled and followed Gibbs outside. DiNozzo stopped at his own car to pull out a gift wrapped parcel. Gibbs gave him a questioning look, and he admitted with a shrug: "Got a bubble gum machine for Fred when I was thinking I might go to Wendy's brunch. I guess it will be okay for little Amira instead."

Riding shotgun in Gibbs' car, Tony got comfortable for the half hour drive to Amira and Leyla. Since Mike's funeral, Gibbs had helped Leyla find a place in a good neighborhood in Washington DC. This was the first time that Tony had made the trip with Gibbs. "Boss," he inquired quietly after a while, "what made you tell Leyla that I'd be coming along today?" - "DiNozzo, what have you been doing last Christmas Day?" said Gibbs. Tony didn't have to take long to think about it: "Drove around town, drove some more, ended up in front of your fire." Gibbs just nodded, nothing needed to be said.

Tony was half asleep by the time Gibbs pulled into Leyla's drive. Amira had apparently been waiting beside the window, as she ran out to the porch as soon as Gibbs got out of the car. "Gibbsy!" she shouted happily and jumped into his arms. "Hey, lady bug" came back more quietly from Gibbs. Tony had extricated himself from the car, unsure if he should bring in the presents, but Gibbs shook his head and mouthed "later". Leyla appeared in the door and ushered them inside.

Amira towed off Gibbs to her room to show him the latest stones she had found near a little creek her mother was wont to take her. That left Tony with Leyla who had him settled in front of the TV in no time. Tony tried to tell her that he could help her instead, but Leyla declined.

When Gibbs came back to the living room some time later, he found Tony snoring lightly. He smiled tenderly for a moment, helping birth Emma's baby a few hours earlier had him in a mellow mood. Still smiling, Gibbs slipped off to the bathroom to clean up. He got his goddaughter Amira next, and supervised washing hands and then rinsed the Bambi washcloth and gave a quick swipe at her face. Satisfied, they trooped to the table, and Gibbs barked "wash your hands!" at Tony in passing. "On it, Boss!" came back smartly before Tony had even opened his eyes.

Just then Leyla came in with asparagus soup to start off their meal. With Amira present, Gibbs couldn't get out of eating his vegetables for once. When he picked up a lone long asparagus among the short chopped ones, a shadow passed across his face. "Boss?" inquired Tony, but Gibbs shook his head, not wanting to bring up Jenny, who had pinched all his asparagus one night he brought dinner for two to the directors office. But watching the snow fall, brought up another memory, oh, he missed her still.

Now both Amira and Tony were looking at him. "Come on, Boss, give!" insisted Tony. "Okay, remember Carson, the kid?" - "Sure do!" And DiNozzo excitedly began recounting all the games the whole team had helped play with Carson to keep him busy before Jenny took him home. Gibbs carefully watched the son of his heart, but Tony gave no sign that Jenny's name troubled him now. "What about him?" - "Just thinking that I should have hugged and kissed Jen goodnight that evening." Tony's eyes got big and round, "She'd have let you?" At that, Gibbs gave a rare little smile that reached his eyes, and nodded. It felt like a good memory after all.

Leyla brought out the lamb dish then, and they got busy eating. When they were all so stuffed they couldn't eat another morsel, Leyla made them coffee, Gibbs style, but she brought out hazelnut creamer just for Tony. Leyla smiled, "Jethro asked me to get some for you." - "Love you, Boss!" Tony said sincerely.

"Amira needs her afternoon nap, what say we all chill out for an hour or two?" suggested Leyla a while later. Gibbs took Amira's hand, put her in bed, and settled soon after on the couch in her room. Tony meanwhile brought in the presents from the car, then snuggled under the Afghan on the sofa, while Leyla retired to her bedroom.

All was quiet for an hour, but then Gibbs got busy in the kitchen with putting away the dried pans, and cleaning up the dishes. Then he arranged the presents next to the small Christmas tree Leyla had put up in honor of Mike's murdered son Liam, her beloved. Although Leyla was Muslim, she wanted Amira to have as much history as possible with her Christian father. So Gibbs had brought along Kelly's old Christmas book to read from later. While still holding it in his hand, he remembered it had been a gift from his father. Impulsively he opened up his phone and called him

"Hi son, Merry Christmas!" said Jack. Wishing Merry Christmas to his dad too, Jethro wondered if his father was alone, but then he heard voices in the background. "Are you alright Leroy? I hope you're not alone today." - "Nope, I'm at Leyla's place with Tony." Jack was relieved knowing Tony was there, but a little disquieted knowing Amira would bring back memories of other Christmasses. "Thinking of Kelly?" Jack went straight to the kill. "Always, how could I not! But I'm okay. I may even read Kelly's favorite Christmas story to them later." - "Alright son, just don't overdo it. I love you, Leroy." - "Bye, dad, love you too!" Jethro snapped the phone closed, and put the book on the table to have it close at hand.

Tony had woken up, his hair sticking up every which way. "Got enough sleep now, Tony?" - "Yeah Boss, I'm good." Gibbs left him to straighten up, and stretched himself to get the kinks out his back. After the long night he'd had, he felt his left knee a little. He really should rub it with arnica before the old war injury acted up. He had a small bottle in the first aid kit, so he grabbed it from his car and applied it in the bathroom. Tony of course wrinkled his nose, and shot him a look. "Just using it preemptively, DiNozzo." - "When you say so, Boss!"

In the mean time, Leyla had put out home baked cinnamon stars with tea, knowing that Gibbs could be tempted by both. Although it was not widely known that Jethro did drink anything besides coffee, and bourbon, of course, he had quite taken to tea while staying with Mike in the past. It was time to get her daughter up, or Amira would be awake all night instead. Tony suggested a snowball fight, him against the ladies, with Jethro playing referee. But Gibbs loped the odd snowball at him anyway, making him sputter with indignation, followed by laughter by all. They all trooped back into the warm vestibul soon enough and hit the cookie jar which had additional flavors to cinnamon hidden away.

It took not long until Gibbs sat down in a comfortable armchair, his goddaughter snuggled in his arms, and asked Tony to start singing. Trust DiNozzo to come up with something that would be known even in a Muslim home, he thought as both Amira and Leyla happily joined in the refrain of 'Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer'. Tony then asked Amira to list the other reindeer names ... "Dasher, Dancer, Prancer" came immediately out of Amira's mouth, then Jethro wispered the next three, and Amira repeated aloud "Vixen, Comet, Cupid", and then she shouted very loud and fast "Donner, Blitzen" and clapped her hands full of glee. They all laughed at that. After a few more cookies, they all settled down to listen as Gibbs took up the Christmas book.

"There had been no place in town left when Mary and Joseph finally got there, so the precious child had been born out in the fields of Bethlehem. Jesus didn't mind, he was happy and warm in his mother's arms. Shepherds were the first to bring gifts to the child. Shepherd Mac brought clean linnen, Shepherd Jack brought a wheel of cheese, and Shepherd Leroy brought a knife because of rule number nine." Amira didn't find anything strange about the rule, she had learnt it long since from Mike and Gibbs, both. She even had her own, albeit blunt, knife. However, Tony scrambled over and sat next to Gibbs knees on the floor, and looked at the page and discovered the words truly written there - in Jackson Gibbs' handwriting. At this Tony stayed at Jethro's side while he read on. And if Gibbs hand perchance brushed close to Tony's shoulder, or Tony's hand tightened on Gibbs' ankle, no one acknowledged either, or the slight breaks in Jethro's voice when he came to another chapter added in for Kelly by Jack.

The list of names and gifts was a long one, but then came a passage where Kelly's name stood with placeholders for brother or sister. And Gibbs took a deep breath and filled the blanks with Amira and Tony, caressing Kelly's name with his eyes only.

"Amira and Tony had no earthly goods for Jesus. They had scrambled all day to bring fresh water pails for the guests and the holy family, and were only now in position to come close to Jesus. Amira and Tony looked at the floor as they had no gift. But Jesus laughed, and caught a little finger of theirs in each of his hands. Mary turned to Amira, ... you've given time and effort. Then Mary turned to Tony, ... you've given work and service. Rule number five, you're good, our deepest thanks."

Amira laughed delightedly at the ending, as she knew the rules as well as Kelly had, but Tony had shiny eyes and Jethro gently stroked the back of his head, before announcing abruptly "Let's look at the presents!"

\- fine -

A/N: For those not familiar with Gibbs' rules, you can google them. I used the following two ...

\- Rule # 5: You don't waste good.

\- Rule # 9: Never go anywhere without a knife.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed my first time ever story. If you did, please let me know!


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